


Only Slightly Unfamiliar

by orphan_account



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Family Bonding, Family Dynamics, Gen, Klaus Hargreeves Needs A Hug, Klaus caused the apocalypse, M/M, No Incest, Number Five | The Boy Has Issues, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Recovery, Schizophrenia, Sober Klaus Hargreeves
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-28
Updated: 2020-10-05
Packaged: 2021-03-07 18:35:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,401
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26692303
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: After stopping Klaus’s Apocalypse Five and the rest of his family must to learn to live with each otherIn with the Hargreeves learn to be a family for the first time
Relationships: Allison Hargreeves & Klaus Hargreeves, Ben Hargreeves & Klaus Hargreeves, Diego Hargreeves & Grace Hargreeves, Diego Hargreeves & Klaus Hargreeves, Klaus Hargreeves & Luther Hargreeves, Klaus Hargreeves & Vanya Hargreeves, Klaus Hargreeves/David "Dave" Katz, Number Five | The Boy & Klaus Hargreeves
Comments: 3
Kudos: 116





	1. Introducing

**Author's Note:**

> This is a sequel to my previous fic “Out Alone”. I don’t think it’s necessary to read that one to understand this one, but it would probably be helpful

Five took a choking breath into his body. He patted his arms, his legs, his chest. It was all real. It was all solid. He was alive again.

He gave a little strangled cry, not quite used to being in his body, let alone this barely pubescent shard of it. Vanya gave him a concerned glance but he ignored her. At that moment he was far more concerned with what was going on at the smoking room door.

“But I have superpowers now, I promise,” Klaus said at the doorway. He looked tired, dark circles under his eyes and arms thin but muscular. Five noticed a brush of dirt beneath the fingernails that clutched the heavy wooden door. His face was different than Five remembered. How had he not noticed that the first time around, the army jacket and the fraying features?

Diego said something and moved to close the door, stronger than Klaus and not letting him forget it as he pushed their brother aside.

“Wait!” Five cried, letting the air ripple around him as he appeared between them at the door, holding it open to stop his brother from locking Klaus out. 

Before, when he’d first come back to stop the Apocalypse, Five had no idea what caused it. For all he knew it could have been nuclear Armageddon or the work of a highly successful sentient building. He had been lost in the world, though he had swore he wasn’t, and he desperately needed to save his family. This time he knew what was going to happen and he would be damned before he let his brother destroy the world. Not for a second time.

“What is it, Five?” Diego looked annoyed but he opened the door. Five breathed a sigh of relief and ushered a confused Klaus over to the plush red sofa. He shot Diego a nasty look.

Five adjusted his shoulder and felt the fabric of the uniform blazer pull across his back. “I just think we should hear Klaus out.” It was strange hearing himself speak again, to feel his vocal cords push and pull and thrum in his throat. He’d done almost everything else the world had to offer twice, but he’d only been resurrected once. He hadn’t expected to miss the feeling of tasting his tongue on every syllable.

“Why?” Luther looked confused, the poor stupid bastard. Five pitied him sometimes, having to live with so understanding of the world. 

“Because he’s our brother?”

“I agree with Five,” Allison said, sitting down next to Klaus. “Now, what was this about superpowers?”

“Uh, yeah. I have superpowers like you guys.” Klaus smiled. It was hopeful and it was pathetic and it was exactly what the moment called for.

Vanya tapped the table with her pinky finger before she spoke, a nervous habit Five could have sworn she didn’t have before he left. “And what powers do you have?”

“I can speak with ghosts. And summon them. And float. And I think I might be immortal? I’m not fully willing to test that one.”

Diego still looked skeptical. Five understood that. If he hadn’t been brought back from the dead he’d probably think Klaus was off his meds too.  “And do you have any proof?”

“Give me a second,” Klaus said. The room was quiet and awkward. He closed his eyes but nothing happened. He seemed to realize this, and slowly his hands began to glow blue and for a moment the room was filled with screeching blue figures. 

Klaus opened his eyes and they fell away. “Is that proof enough for you?”

Diego nodded. “That was,” he fumbled the words in his mouth for a moment, “that was incredible.”

“Thank you. I try my best.”

“Does that mean dad was lying to us the whole time about you being sick?”

“Well no, I don’t think so. I think I’m schizophrenic, but I also think that I can see ghosts. It’s like, you know, all of our powers,” he seemed giddy at the word our, “they hurt us just like they help us. In really ironic ways. Like Vanya, you can control sound but you’re scared of talking to people. No offense.”

“None taken,” she said, but Five thought she was only saying it on reflex. Her eyes were still looking around the room in shock where the ghosts had once been.

“Or like how Diego-”

“It’s okay,” Diego said, “we don’t need more details.”

Everyone remained quiet.

“Are your Academy meetings always like this?” Klaus asked. “Because I’m starting to think I didn’t miss much being left out.”

“They got more interesting sometimes, but usually that was when dad berated one of us,” Allison said.”You know how he was.”

Klaus nods sagely. “But please continue. I want to know what I missed in the earlier discussion.”

“We were just talking about the Apocalypse. But luckily, thanks to Klaus and myself, we don’t have to worry about that anymore,” Five said.

“What?” A couple members of the family replied, but Five couldn’t tell who exactly they were.

“Well Klaus started the Apocalypse.”

“Why didn’t you say that earlier?” Luther thunders.

“Well I didn’t know earlier, dumbass. Obviously I would have done something if I’d known.”

“But we were only talking a few minutes ago,” Vanya mumbles.

“Do I have to explain everything to you people? Just accept my word.” They don’t seem happy with that answer. “Fine. In the future Klaus kills us all. Or he did, before we fixed the timeline. He killed us, but then he brought me back as a ghost and sent me back here to my body, and I stopped him storming off after Diego tried to lock him out of the meeting. So the Apocalypse is over and we can move on with our lives.”

“Huh.” Klaus held his teeth together and made a vaguely descriptive hand motion. “Am I supposed to apologize for the Apocalypse? I feel like I should. But it also didn’t happen, so maybe I shouldn’t put in the effort.”

“I don’t think that’s anyone’s highest priority,” Vanya said, walking over and placing her hand on his shoulder.”

“No, I could use an apology for being murdered,” Diego replied.

“Well, Diego, I apologize for murdering you.”

“Thank you Klaus.”

The siblings sat around the living room and looked at each other. It was quiet. The clock ticked on the wall but it didn’t sing, only halfway through it’s journey to the next hour.

“So what do we do if the world isn’t ending?” Allison asked.

A few of the siblings shrugged. Luther bit his fingernails. It was wet and loud.

“Does anyone want to get doughnuts?” Klaus finally asked. For half a moment Five thought they were going to say no, but then they all nodded, shrugged, and began running around to collect shoes and bags. 

Five watched them all in silence before Vanya tapped him on the shoulder. “Come on, get ready. You’re coming with us. Did you really think we could go to Griddy’s without you?”


	2. Chapter One (Spaceboy)

Luther was going to have to address it at some point, the fact that Klaus had powers, but he didn’t want to. 

It wasn’t exactly the sort of thing he could bring up over breakfast. No one wanted apologies for decades of ostracization over pancakes and bacon, no tears about their father’s betrayal spilling into the coffee. Not that Luther hadn’t cried, alone in his room, but he’d been humiliated enough by Five’s careful reminder that they had thin walls. He didn’t need that from Klaus as well.

But today was the perfect opportunity to talk to his brother. They were alone in the house, everyone else off running around out in the city, and it would be easy for Luther to just knock on Klaus’s door.

Yet still he stopped, halfway down the hall, his throat tight. It had been like this for weeks, ever since the Apocalypse that wasn’t. He was running on borrowed time, time he shouldn’t have. It should motivate him to move faster, to get more done, but instead it only made him more anxious. More terrified of messing up. He truly had only one life, and he couldn’t bear to waste it. Though the more he tried to not waste time the more his life slipped between his fingers.

“Luther? What are you doing out here?” Klaus poked him with his bare toe, and Luther realized that he had fallen down to a puddle on the cold hardwood floor. His thick arms were curled around his chest and he looked up to see Klaus’s hand reaching down from above. He took it, feeling the slim, callused, cold fingers and the healed scrapes and scars.

“I was just, well.” He stopped. He hadn’t planned this far ahead, and he didn’t know how to condense his perpetual crisis into something that can be explained in the walk down the steps and into the living room. 

“I’m not going to be able to help you if you keep having the social skills of,” Klaus gestured up and down at him, “a giant ape-man who lived on the moon for a couple years.” He handed Luther a bottle of something bright and blue.

He held it up to the light. He knew he shouldn’t be suspicious, not after Klaus and Five both swore that he was sober, but Luther couldn’t help taking pause at swigging down the drink of an ex-addict.

“It’s not gonna kill you, it’s just some sports drink Diego always buys for himself. Even I’ll admit that they’re kind of gross, but the sugar will help you after whatever,” he motioned to Luther’s chest with his hand, “episode you had.”

“Thank you,” Luther said, flopping down on the couch and taking a sip of the drink. It was better than he was expecting, considering the fact that Diego had picked it out. Last time he’d gone grocery shopping the fridge had been filled with nothing but eggs and rye bread for weeks.

Klaus cleared his throat. “Ben wants you to know that sugar is a drug, and that you should be careful with it.” He flung his head over his shoulder. “Oh my god, Ben, please relax.” Klaus’s conversation with the air was animated. It was strange sitting there, watching it happening and knowing that his brother was actually seeing a ghost, not some paranoid hallucination. “I literally started my day with orange juice, I don’t see why you’re complaining. It’s not like I’m having the guy snort lines of k!”

“K?” Luther asked.

Klaus waved him off. “Ketamine.” Luther looked at him blankly. “Sometimes it’s painful how sheltered you are.” He spun on his heel, his skirt twirling with him. “And Ben, I’ll make you corporeal when you’re being less pissy.”

Klaus stuck his tongue out at the air and sat down in a plush chair, his arms spread across it and his posture slouched. “So what did you want, anyway? Because if I’m just babysitting I might actually get Ben to come help.”

“It’s really amazing that you can see Ben. You know that, right?” Luther placed the empty bottle back on the table, accidentally crushing it in the process. “I can’t imagine how good it must have felt, not having to mourn him.”

“He’s in the room, it’s awkward for all of us if you acted like he’s not.”

“Oh, sorry Ben.” Luther tried to smile at where he thought his brother was, but Klaus just shook his head until Luther eventually found the general area where Ben was.

“It’s fine, he doesn’t care.” He threw his arms up. “Well, you shouldn’t care.” Klaus made an exasperated face. “Hey, I’m not the invisible one. It's been a couple years, and if I’m being honest you should be used to it by now.”

It had been a strange adjustment period for all of them, having Ben back. Klaus’s conversations had gotten much more spirited, constant one-sided bickering echoing through the halls. Knowing that it wasn’t in Klaus’s mind, that Ben was real and present and just as annoyed as he’d been in life, well, that was something new and exciting and terrifying. 

Klaus’s foot tapped at the ground. “I didn’t get to skip the mourning phase, you know. For Ben. I still thought he was dead. Completely gone. And it was worse, because I thought that in my grief I’d tricked myself into creating a facsimile of our brother. Do you know what that’s like? The ache of missing your brother, and the ache of knowing that you’re making it worse for yourself for no good reason other than that your brain chemistry’s fucked up? I mean, that was a lot of fun to explain in group, back at the rehab centers Diego liked to check me into.”

Luther shook his head and the clocks ticked along, unaware of what was going on around them. The smallest clock, the one on the shelf between the Greek and the Russian sections, was half a second behind its siblings. It clicked out of turn, an echo of the cacophony it trailed.

“I feel like I should apologize, Klaus.”

“What for?”

“You’re really going to make me say it?” Klaus nodded. “ I’m sorry. For everything. For the way I treated you, for the way I treat you now, for how I think about you.”

“Very reassuring.”

“I’m new to this, okay? I’ve never had to apologize before.”

Klaus laughed. “Luther, you have absolutely had to apologize before, you just never did it.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“You know what it means.”

Luther took a breath, let out a sigh, adjusted his shoulders and kept talking. “I’m only meaning to say that I should have been kinder to you. Even if you didn’t have powers you’re my brother. Knowing you’re like us, it’s made me think.” Klaus waved his hand at the air, like a joke had been made but was being ignored. “It’s made me think that I wasn’t the best brother.”

“Wow, what a revelation.”

“It’s just, I want to be better. Okay? I want to be a better brother. I want to know where I can start.”

“Well that’s a big question, isn’t it? So many choices, Luther, so many choices.”

“I’m going to regret this decision, aren’t I?”

“I wouldn’t have it any other way,” Klaus said.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Luther’s here, and hopefully he isn’t as insufferable as he was in Season One.


End file.
